Messages - DanThePhotoMan

The 5Dmk3 will always have a place in my heart. I put this thing through hell and back traveling around Africa and India over the last two years, as well as around 75 weddings, and it has never given me an issue. The only reason I would consider upgrading is if it has 4k internal and 2 stops better ISO performance. I'm not even really interested in exporting in 4k, I would just like it from a 1 man crew perspective for documentary work and interviews and reframing in post.

I don't see them dropping this below $8k. They'll probably set it there and think that it'll be good competition for the FS7. I absolutely LOVE the 1Dc, but the only way I would ever consider buying is if the price dropped in half, but that's almost guaranteed not to happen since the 1Dx is still sitting at $6,800.00.

Canon made a really big goof with their pricing systems, and now they're paying for it.

For this past year, I've been traveling all over the world with a missionary and documenting everything behind the scenes. I've put a compilation of my favorite images together from the trips, and I hope you enjoy.

95% of the images were taken with a 5Dmk3, and either the 50mm f/1.4, 24-105mm F/4, and 70-200mm F/2.8 IS II.

The other 5% were taken with the Sony A7s and the same combination of lenses.

Oh man, I would have told them something. I shot right around 50 weddings so far this year between photo and video, and fortunately I've never run into situation THAT bad. I have worked with a few amateurs, and I have always been extremely blunt when I see things like that taking place and they usually straighten up. If you're not afraid to be an asshole they usually stay out of your way.

But yeah, priority is definitely set by the bride. I think photography is viewed of the priority simply because it's been around longer than wedding videos. But like it's been said, at the end of the day you're both professionals (hopefully), and if everyone works together and thinks of themselves as a team instead of being more important, things work out great.

You could also open up all of the Raw images in ACR, adjust the first image to your liking, then sync all the corrections to the rest of the images. You'd still probably need to tweak a little bit if you'd like, but a little contrast and saturation goes a long way.

What do you mean by this? When you say "cheap 4k ability", I think "recording 4K to flash cards", like the Panasonic GH4.

But I haven't heard of such an announcement; is it something else?

Thanks.

I'm talking about the Atomos Shogun. It allows the A7s to record 24fps at 4k ProRes 4:2:2. It's $2,000.00 for the recorder and $2,500.00 for the A7s, so that's $5,500.00 for absolutely beautiful 4k with the best lowlight in the business. Just don't plan on shooting any action sequences with it, the rolling shutter is horrid.

But, that's relatively cheap 4k. Not flashcard cheap though; that would be great.

I definitely agree Policar, the footage looked bland, but I think the choice in lighting and post are at fault there. Who knows though, it could just literally be a terrible camera. I'll definitely have to see more footage before any decisions are made.

It's not even necessarily that I have clients asking for 4k. For instance, I'm leaving in two days to film a short documentary in Kampala, Uganda until early October. Being able to shoot an interview in 4k and editing in a 1080p timeline allows me cover a Medium, Medium Close, and Close Up, all with one camera. Granted, I would prefer having a two camera setup, but when you're the only operator and have to worry about bag restrictions on some of the smaller planes, as well as setup and tear down time, sometimes you can only have one camera with you. I don't even care so much for exporting in 4k as 90% of people who watch everything do it from barely HD laptop screens or their phones.

That's Sony's new FS7. Just go head and compare that the C300 for a second. Now, the FS7 body costs $8,000.00 vs the newly reduced C300 body for $11,999. Looking at that, why in the world would anyone choose the C300?

I know I'm starting to sound like a Sony fan boy, but I'm not trying to. I have a bag full of L glass and love my 5Dmk3 and 6D to death, but on a spec vs price ratio, it is ever increasingly making less and less sense to stay with Canon for the Cinema line when for the same price as the C300 I can get a body, external recorder for uncompressed 4k, and a lens.

So with Photokina going on this week, I can't help but wonder what Canon has planned for the Cinema EOS line, especially after the announcement at IBC about the Sony FS7. I've mainly been doing documentary work the last few years, and the C300 has been one of the most popular cameras I've seen among other documentary shooters, but I think it's quite clear that spec wise it just doesn't hold its own against the newer gen cameras from other companies.

I had been eye balling the C300/500 for a while, but wound up going with the A7s because of the smaller form factor (pretty important at the time as we ran into some trouble trying to get an HPX-250 through customs in India) and cheap 4k ability available next month. No regrets whatsoever there.

I'm a Canon boy at heart, and I would love to stay with them. I was planning on waiting to see what their next line of cinema bodies would bring as I'm not in a rush to buy anything, but the Sony FS7 really started to change my mind. Personally, I just don't see how Canon can match the specs of that camera at that price point, especially after seeing how much of a lack luster upgrade the 7Dmk2 received. Though that may not be a fair comparison between the 7Dmk2 and the next cinema camera, and I know Canon must have been pretty serious to jump into the cinema world as they did, but I just simply feel like they have not shown anywhere near the amount of innovation in order to keep up with other companies in the cinema world. The C100-500 are amazing cameras for what they are, there's no doubting that, but I just keep feel like they continue to be dwarfed by every single new announcement from other companies.

Who knows, they may announce something this week at Photokina and blow us all away, but I truly feel like if they gave us something that was half of a real upgrade with no 4k but added 1080p @ 60fps, I wouldn't be surprised at all.

The last few years I've been doing documentary work in Uganda, Kenya, India and Australia, and I can say the 24-105 is my go to lens, right next to the 70-200 f/2.8 IS II. Honestly, even if they updated this lens I don't think I would buy it unless it was literally a mind blowing difference in image quality. Just got my Sony A7s in the other day, and believe me when I say that was a pair made in heaven, especially with the APS-C mode built into the camera.

This lens gets a lot of crap from people, but I really can't think of a better lens that I've used for documentary work.

If Canon puts 4k into the 5Dmk4, it'll probably be a 8bit 4:2:0 internal recording just like the GH4. Possibly 4:2:2 8bit to an external recorder, but I don't see them doing much more than that. Anything else would essentially eliminate the 1Dc in the eyes of any indie film maker, as well as anyone that doesn't need to do any kind of heavy grading.

I'm curious to think what the thoughts about the direction Canon will be taking in the next 2-4 years with the C100-500 line. Will there just be more firmware upgrades for the next few years or new bodies? What's Canon going to do, if anything, about the cheaper yet still very useable 4k cameras like the BMCC, Ursa, GH4, CION, etc?